


A birthday not to forget

by menthuthuyoupi



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen, i did this in under a day you can easily see the areas ive rushed, nigerian leorio and good food comes to save the day, very very rushed im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/menthuthuyoupi/pseuds/menthuthuyoupi
Summary: It is Gon’s birthday.He eats cake. He walks miles into the forest.The years start to blur into each other.And then he begins to fret.





	A birthday not to forget

**Author's Note:**

> quick oneshot for 5/5. happy birthday gon!

Today, Gon is sixteen.

A new chapter in his life starts with rosy rays of sun rejoicing through open glass windows, stirring dust to dance from the dark corners of his room.

 

It is marked by Mito, who begins the day with hugs and brushes the sleep away from his eyelids with kisses.

“Happy birthday Gon!” Her grin could put the sleepy dawn to utter shame. She takes his hands and leads him to the living room (her grip, Gon notes-- calloused, firm), and her eyes glimmer as they’ve been casted by the stars and sky itself. 

The cake that she and grandma Abe push towards him drips at the edges with an obscene amount of frosting. It is all topped off with a garish display of crookedly placed candles whos spines, unapologetically bent, disturb the unison of it all. Gon finds that he minds none of it at all.

“Blow it out,” Mito says. “Make a wish.”

Gon closes his eyes. Takes a breath. And blows.

The candles burn. They simmer and die.

Mito hands him a butter knife with vim. The handle is cold, unyielding in his grasp, and when he cuts a slice the cake splits deliciously in two.

He takes a slice and in the morning fuzz that clouds his brain, Mito scolds him for nearly trying to eat his candle.

The tang of cake, warm and heavy on his tongue (was it always like this?) Gon gulps it down as Mito and Abe clap and cheer and sing to him.

 

Today is to be a happy day. 

All Gon can do is wonder.

How the cake tasted the year before. Or the years before that.

**

Killua calls him.

“Happy birthday, frog boy,” Killua says over the phone, and hearing him makes something come unbound in Gon’s belly, because he can’t help but feel as if he’s losing his grip on a great many things, and the memory of Killua’s voice is the one thing he doesn’t want to lose.

“Hey Killua. You know what day it is?” When Gon speaks, he fails to keep the smile from his tone.

“Of course I know what day it is, bighead. That’s why I called you!”

“And?” Gon drags out playfully, draws the tip of his tongue to the gap in his teeth. “What would you get me for my birthday present?”

“Aren’t birthday presents supposed to be a surprise?--” Not Killua’s voice-- not this time, but someone else just as familiar to Gon.

“Alluka!” Gon chirps. “Hello!”

“Yes it’s me! Happy birthday Gon.” Her voice is high with a sing song. “How are you?”

“I’m doing fine Alluka. What about you? Where are you?”

“Chilling with big brother, in Yorknew city--”

Gon hears some jostling in the background before Killua is back in control of the phone again.

“As I was saying, before a certain someone,” Gon can imagine the glare Killua lending Alluka during that momentary pause. “Interrupted me, I already had something in mind to get you.”

“Whatever happens, it happens, as long as you end up paying for my Animal Jam membership.”

“Consider it done-- Alluka. Give me that.”

Alluka is giggling on the phone, laughing at something miles away.

“Gon?” Mito’s call resonates behind him. “Is that Alluka and Killua?”

“Yes Mito,” He says. He turns to face her, and sees the moment her eyes light up.

“Let me talk to Alluka,” Mito says, and clasps her holds out her hands for the phone. “Let me hear my baby girl.”

“So you’ve come to talk to Alluka instead of me, huh?” It’s Killua, tone rough and pressed full of mock hurt. “What has this world come to?”

“She doesn’t mean it like that,” Gon whispers back into the device. 

“What’s going on now? Gon?”

“Killua says that he’s hurt you’ve come to talk to Alluka and not him.”

“Poor baby,” Mito coos, and Gon hears Killua sputter over the phone.

**

Gon heads outside. The trodden path he walks to the forest is worn down and lost to sunshine. Scraggly branches scratch at the sky like black fingers.

Beneath the cool silhouette of trees and the dichotomy of light that trickles through leaves, gaping for the rest of the sky to fall through, Gon walks among beauty. He catalogues the flowers that cry out in vibrant pinks and pastels. He observes butterfly wings-- spotted, striped, speckles, ringed, dotted, and the bursts of color that accompany their membranes.

He sits and watches a boar cross his path, grunting along the way. A cicada chatters low by his ear.

To many, the forest is silent and still. It breathes, if you stay long enough, if you’re patient, and if you listen. Gon knows this, because his heart is trained to flow by the hymn of nature.

He wanders amidst the anthem of island, mind full of nothing. Occasionally, there are villagers that call out to him, congratulating him for another year of living, and their faces can’t hide their smiles. 

He wanders until the sky is tempted with tired violet and the sun concedes it’s throne.

Gon walks back and thinks about how he knows the faces of every resident by heart, by name, by memory.

What he thinks more of, however, is how he can’t remember which faces came to greet him last time.

He can't remember them at all, and the panic begins to grow in his belly like a cluster of sparks.

**

When he finally returns home, a certain doctor is waiting for him.

Today, Leorio does not wear his suit, but a dashiki.

“I was looking everywhere for you,” Leorio says. “I came by to visit, and Mito said you weren’t home. That you were out again.”

“I was just walking,” Gon says, wraps his arms around Leorio’s chest in an embrace that grounds him. He feels as if he’s come home in more ways than one. 

And when Leorio continues to say nothing, Gon opts to move the conversation into quieter territory. “You look nice,” He observes. “I like it when you wear your dashiki.”

Leorio chuckles at that, gently removes himself from Gon’s grip, and holds out something bright and embroidered to him.

“Oh yea? I had to wear it-- special occasion, you know. Now you’ve got one too,” He says. “I made it myself. It’s been tough to work on, and I started on it a few months back. I hope you enjoy it.”

Gon tugs at the damask. Slips the loose fabric over his shoulders and twirls when he finds it’s a perfect fit.

“I love it Leorio. Thank you! I don’t know what to give you in return though.... Do you want a frog?”

Leorio has the grace to look baffled for a few brief moments. Tries his tongue. “Ah, Gon don’t worry about it-- it’s a free gift from me to you. Today is all about you anyways, yea?”

Gon just hums quietly and nods as he tries to remember the colors of Leorio’s dashiki.

“You should come into the forest with me sometime.”

“I’d probably just get all ashy wandering around in the woods with you,” Leorio replies instead.

“I’ll bring lotion, and you won’t get bitten by bugs I promise.”

“Ion’ know ‘bout that.” Leorio says and musses the green fringe of Gon’s hair. “It’s getting dark. Let’s come inside.”

**

Mito, Abe and Leorio cook in the kitchen. The house grows humid with steam, and when they finish preparing the dishes, Leorio calls Gon down to eat.

All four share a dinner of eba and fried rice. Gon picks at the liver in his plate, and is reminded of the first dinner they had since Leorio first arrived here-- when he washed up at the beach, stranded and looking to all the world as if he’d been through hell and back.

‘I’m waiting for Kurapika,’ he had said then-- was still waiting, even now. For Kurapika, and Woble, too. Woble, whom Leorio spent hours talking to Gon about, fawning over the memory of, according to himself, ‘the most blessed baby’ he had ever seen.

Gon pauses in the middle of spearing his green beans. What was he doing again? Oh yes. Eating.

Focus.

Gon stares at his plate. Counts the peas. There’s some corn in here too, right? How many?

 

“I'd hate to be a bother, miss Mito.” He distinctly hears Leorio saying over the table-- whatever they were talking about once ( of plans for the future, of doctorates and degrees and reminiscing ) has now shifted.

“Oh, It's no issue.” Mito now, warm and motherly. “We always enjoy your company, especially given how much you've helped us.”

Gon takes a bite of his chicken. Tries to savor it.

“Please, feel free to stay over for as long as you need.”

**

Gon cannot sleep. When everyone has retreated into their rooms for the night, Gon lays staring at popcorn ceiling and struggling to recall former birthday presents from former years and previous days.

He silently sheds the covers and descends the stairs in the stagnant state of the house.

 

He finds Leorio shadowed under the dim light of the living room, stirring a bowl of garri.

“Gon?” Leorio asks when he spots him. “Can’t rest?”

“I suppose so.”

Leorio stops stirring, points to a spot on the couch beside him. “Sit with me.”

 

Gon sinks into the velvety cushions. Lets the silence blanket him before Leorio speaks.

“Is something wrong?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I feel like I’m forgetting many things. Important things.”

“How so?”

“It's like... can’t remember what I did last birthday or the year before that, or the types of presents I recieved…”

“Are things like that really all that important?” Leorio asks, and Gon pauses. Ponders for a bit.

 

When the other fails to speak up again, Leorio presses forward. “So, what did you do today?”

“I was woken up today by Mito. She and grandma Abe brought me strawberry flavored cake with white icing and striped green candles at the very top. Sixteen of them, to be exact. I blew them out, made a wish. They gave me birthday presents-- a frog sweater from Mito, and a fishing rod from Abe. I talked on the phone to Killua and Alluka. Wandered into the woods and found five different species of butterfly. Saw a boar. Fed a lone fox. Met with some of the townspeople. Someone even gave me binoculars and a new knapsack. I came back here. Had a dinner of fried rice, chicken and eba. The fried rice contained corn, peas and green beans. I finished my dinner and headed to my bedroom. The rest is history.”

“Hmm,” Was all Leorio said before lapsing off again. The curtain pg hush lasted for what seemed to be minutes until he spoke once more, reverently.

“A year ago, I had dinner with Kurapika on the Black Whale. It was the morning after we reunited. We talked for a bit. Had the funniest little convo...”

 

“Do you remember what you ate with them?” Gon urged. “Was it the type of breakfast you’d remember years into the future?”

“Quite frankly, no,” Leorio answers, and when Gon hears that, something in his stomach sinks. 

But then he’s looking to Leorio again, and Gon is surprised to see something fond in the doctor’s dark, far away eyes. Something graced by love.

 

“But, I remember that it was a very lovely dinner.” Leorio continues, voice quiet. “And sometimes, I think that’s enough.”


End file.
